You're The One That I Want
by erinx319
Summary: Summer is over and the gang is back for a new school year, but when two new girls show up, one with an extremely troubled past How will Gabriella and Sharpay feel when Troy and Ryan both decide to act with different girls? Chaos ensues... First fic CHAPT
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot, Kyleigh O'Brian, Claire Austin, Kyleigh's mom and Kyleigh's three siblings**

Chapter 1

Troy was loving summer vacation. He had signed up to be a camp counselor along with Chad and Zeke and had met two girls who counseled with them. Claire Austin and Kyleigh O'Brian from Boston, Massachusetts, who had both just moved to his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He had had the best time hanging out with them and couldn't wait to introduce them to Gabriella, his girlfriend of seven months, and Sharpay and Ryan, who were actually great friends once you got past the icy exterior. It turned out Ryan was nothing like his sister and was now closer to Troy than even Chad. Ryan would have counseled with them over the summer, but he and Sharpay had little kid dance classes to teach. Sharpay and Ryan had actually spent many summers helping kids of families who couldn't afford to send their children to dance lessons. Each summer they held camps and taught a handful of children for free.

It was the last day of camp, and the last day of summer. Everyone was lounging around, packing, or saying goodbye. Claire and Kyleigh bade goodbye to their newfound friends, knowing that they would see them the next day at school. Kyleigh's mom picked them up and the two of them slid into the seats behind Kyleigh's three adopted siblings. Kyleigh and Claire listened to the radio and talked about random stuff during the ride home. Suddenly, the radio started getting interference from what appeared to be a police scanner on which the two policemen were talking a about a drunk driving accident. Kyleigh shot a nervous glance at Claire who had tensed up and Kyleigh noticed tears beginning to well up in her eyes. Kyleigh's mom looked at Claire in the rearview mirror and shot forward and shut the radio off. There was a moment of awkward silence where Claire wiped her eyes frantically and Kyleigh and her mother pretended to not have noticed her tears. When they got to the house everything was back to normal and Kyleigh's mom made the two of them grilled cheese, which they ate in a small room joining their separate rooms. It was a nice size with a couch, two comfy chairs, a table, and a TV, perfect for hanging out. Soon it was time for bed and they went to their own rooms. Claire quickly fell asleep, but was almost immediately awoken by her own strangled sobs. She blinked her eyes in an attempt to get the images of oncoming headlights, a tangled mess of metal, and three caskets lined up in a row out of her head. She rolled over and silently cried herself to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 

The next morning, Claire was up at five due to continuous nightmares. She brushed her waist-length blond hair and brushed her teeth before picking out her outfit for the first day of school. She decided on a simple pair of embroidered jeans and a light turquoise tank top.

When Kyleigh finally came downstairs, Claire was ready to go.

Kyleigh looked at Claire anxiously for a moment before saying, "Claire, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine!" she replied overenthusiastically. "Why do you ask?" she added as an after though.

"Well…" Kyleigh said hesitantly, "You… you were screaming again last night."

Claire cringed and looked away from her. "Sorry." she managed as her best friend put her arms around her.

"Don't worry, it's not a problem."

Claire looked at her sadly and said, "It's been four months… you'd think I'd be over it by now."

Kyleigh shook her head and was about to reply when her mom came running down the steps two at a time.

"Late for work!" she gasped out while grabbing her purse and car keys. "Have a nice day!" she yelled as she ran out the door.

Kyleigh and Claire looked at each other and laughed.

Just then Kyleigh's grandma came down the steps and glanced at the clock. "You two should be going, shouldn't you?"

"Oh, right." Kyleigh said and grabbed Claire's wrist and pulled her out the door.

They got to school after about eight minutes of walking and grabbed their schedules from the principal's office. Claire looked down and noticed that they were together in all of their classes except for Math and Science.

"Hey, we have Ms. Darbus for homeroom… didn't Chad, Troy, and Zeke say she was the crazy drama instructor?" Claire asked as she glanced down at the slip of paper with her locker combination printed on it.

She began to turn the dial when Chad poked her in the side and she screamed and dropped the combination. He grabbed her as she was falling and pulled her back up.

"Sorry, forgot how jumpy you were." He laughed.

"Ha ha, very funny." She remarked as Troy and Zeke walked up too.

"Soooooooo," Troy said, "How were the last five hours of your summer?"

Claire grabbed her books as Kyleigh wrenched open her own locker saying, "Peachy, how 'bout yours?"

"Oh it was good enough, my dad forgot to pick me up from the camp until about 10 o'clock yesterday so I had a grand old time hanging out with the mosquitoes and raccoons." Troy said blandly.

As they started walking down the hall, they happily found out that they were all in Darbus' homeroom.

They got to the classroom when Claire realized she had left her math book in her locker. She started heading back for it and Troy and Kyleigh stopped and waited outside of Darbus' room for her.

As she was walking back to the class, she accidentally bumped into Ryan, causing both of them to stumble backwards.

She apologized profusely and began walking towards Troy and Kyleigh.

They, however, were looking over her head at Ryan, who was staring at Claire as he walked forward. Claire passed them and walked into Darbus' room. Ryan turned too, thinking he was at the door.

Kyleigh and Troy both muttered, "wall" under their breath as he slammed into the wall. He fell to the ground, turning a deep shade of crimson.

Troy quickly helped him up and took a look at him. "Ryan… normal clothes?" he asked incredulously.

"Yeah," he said, his face beginning to lose its color. "I finally convinced Sharpay to let me pick out my own clothes!" he replied as he gestured to his jeans and t-shirt.

The three of them laughed as they followed Claire into the room. Troy, Chad, Zeke, Kyleigh, and Claire all sat in a row together, and Ryan took the seat right behind Claire.

Gabriella and Sharpay walked in chatting amiably but Gabriella stopped when she saw her seat next to Troy was taken by Kyleigh.

She hadn't seen him all summer and she missed him, so she sat behind him and scooched her chair forward to get his attention.

Sharpay sat down in-between Ryan and Gabriella, behind Kyleigh. She began talking to Ryan but soon noticed he was completely ignoring her. She threw her pencil at him, but he caught it and handed it back to her, not taking his eyes off the back of Claire's head.

"What's up with you?" Sharpay asked.

He snapped his head back and once again turned a shade of red while muttering, "nothing, nothing"

Sharpay rolled her eyes and said, "mmm hmm. Whatever you say Ryan…"

She then turned to Zeke, who had come over to her desk bringing cookies.

After Ms. Darbus lectured them on cell phones and how important the upcoming musical would be, the bell rang and Ryan grabbed his bag and rushed to catch up to Claire.

He quickly reached her and asked her what class she was going to.

"Math, in room 307"

He glanced at his schedule and said, "Me too! I'm Ryan, by the way."

He extended his hand and she shook it and he felt a warm comforting sensation run from the tips of his fingers all through his body.

He tried to ignore it as Claire said, "Oh!" in surprise. "Troy told me all about you! I'm Claire, Claire Austin"

"You just moved here, right?"

"Yeah, from Boston, with Kyleigh and her family."

Ryan was about to ask about her own family when she said, "Could I see your schedule?" He handed it to her and decided against bringing up the topic of her family just now, it didn't seem right.

Suddenly he heard her squeal excitedly. "We're in all the same classes!"

"Oh good" he said with a sigh of relief. "I'll have someone to talk to during all the boring classes."

Claire began to laugh, but was cut off when a large boy pushed between her and Ryan, slamming her into a locker. Her head made a sickening crack and she slid to the ground, her entire world spinning before her dazed eyes.

She tried to focus on Ryan's face; full of concern right above her, but it was multiplying and swimming around in front of her.

As if from very far away, she could hear him calling her name.

As she closed her eyes, in her last moments of consciousness, she saw a bright flash of light and heard the squeal of tires, and then, there was nothing.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 

"Claire!" Ryan yelled as her eyes slowly closed. "Claire, wake up!"

As he was leaning closer to her, a spasm ran through her body and she began shaking and sobbing uncontrollably.

Ryan quickly scooped her up, slung her backpack over his shoulder and began running down the hall, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.

He reached the nurses office and barged in, with Chad right behind him.

Ryan glanced at Chad questioningly as he slowed to a stop in front of the nurse.

Chad replied to the glance with, "I was behind you in the hall and I saw the whole thing."

Ryan turned to the nurse and motioned to the thin slit on the back of Claire's head while explaining what had happened. As he was finishing his story, Claire groaned and fluttered her eyes open.

Chad and Ryan both shot towards her side. She winced and touched the spot on her head covered in bandages.

"Chad, Ryan?" she asked as she wiped her eyes, "Where are we?"

"Nurses office," Chad said with a dazzling smile, "you took a pretty nasty fall there!"

Ryan nodded vigorously and Claire said, "Who was the guy?"

Chad and Ryan looked at each other and both shook their heads. "No idea." Ryan said turning back to her.

The nurse then said, "Well, Chad and Ryan, you two should get to your classes. I'll write you notes, Claire your going home. Call your parents on the phone over there."

Ryan saw her face falter for a moment but it was so fast he couldn't be sure he hadn't imagined it. He and Chad left as Claire dialed her home phone number.

When Kyleigh finally got home, she rushed upstairs to find Claire asleep in her room. She signed in relief, knowing that her best friend was okay.

She called down the steps to Ryan saying, "She's fine, do you wanna have something to eat and hang out?"

"Sure!" he said brightly as he bounded up the steps.

Claire yawned and said, "Sounds good to me too."

"Oh sorry, didn't mean to wake you." Kyleigh said concernedly.

"S'okay" Claire replied.

"How's your head?" Ryan asked as he entered the room a bit sheepishly.

"Better, we went to the hospital and they glued it back together!"

"That's good… I think." He replied with a laugh.

They went into the T.V. room with a plate of nachos and watched T.V. for a while. Ryan left at about six o'clock.

Kyleigh followed Claire into her room and sat down on her bed.

"Soooooooo," she said with a sly grin on her face, "Someone's got herself a boyfriend!"

"What are you talking about?" Claire replied incredulously.

"Oh, come on! He totally wants you!!!"

"Who Ryan?" Kyleigh nodded enthusiastically. "Uhhhh, I highly doubt that considering I passed out at his feet this morning!"

"Ah, but that makes you all the more intriguing." Kyleigh said knowingly, "And anyway, its pretty obvious that he likes you…"

Claire cut her off, "Just drop it, alright!"

"Fine" Kyleigh replied indignantly.

"So, what did I miss at school?"

"Well," Kyleigh replied, regaining her usual spunkiness, "nothing really, just that Ryan and Sharpay had a fight at lunch…"

"They WHAT? Did they make up? Please tell me the made up! What if…"

This time it Kyleigh's turn to cut Claire off. "Chill! Sorry, I forgot that that was a sensitive area… yeah, they made up."

"Oh… ok"

After a few moments of silence Claire said, "I'm really sorry about this, I need to get over it but it's just so hard!"

"Don't worry, healing takes time. You'll be back to normal soon enough… and I bet Ryan will help you!" She said with a silly grin.

"Oh shut up Kyleigh!" Claire said as she threw a pillow at her.

Kyleigh ran from the room, but turned at the last moment and said, "By the way, his locker is right next to yours!"

Claire laughed as Kyleigh ran down the stairs and sat down on her bed and thought, "_Maybe he does like me… no stop, don't be stupid! He doesn't like you that was so just get over it._"

Suddenly Kyleigh called up the steps, "Dinner, get your love sick butt down here!"

"_I am gonna kill her!_" Claire thought as she made her way towards the steps.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 

Claire opened her locker the next morning and grabbed her English books. As she shut her locker door, Ryan appeared in front of her and she let out a short stifled shriek.

"Sorry!" Ryan and Claire both said at the same time.

Claire blushed and laughed. "_Blushing??? Why are you blushing?_" she asked herself, "_You don't like him and he doesn't like you, remember?_"

"So, how's your head feeling?"

"Oh, it's okay. I've had worse injuries." But as soon as the words had slipped from her mouth, she was praying she could take them back.

Ryan opened his mouth and began saying, 'Worse? Like wha…" but Chad bounced over with Kyleigh and Taylor in tow and said,

"How's the hole in your head?"

"Real nice Chad." Taylor said rolling her eyes.

"Much better!" Claire replied with a smile. She turned to Kyleigh as they began walking to class, who smiled at her knowingly and muttered,

"He's staring dreamily at you."

Claire yelled, "WHAT!?!?!?!?" and spun around, her bag falling off her shoulder, wrapping around her legs, and tripping her. She closed her eyes, bracing for the fall, but instead felt a pair of sturdy hands on her back and sweet-scented breath in her face.

She slowly opened her eyes and found herself two inches from Ryan's face. She looked up into his deep blue eyes and the world seemed to stop, it was just the two of them and that was how she wanted it for the rest of her life.

But as fast as time had stopped, it restarted again and Ryan hurriedly set her right, blood rushing to his face.

Claire picked up her bag and apologized to him saying, "Wow, I've just been so graceful around you these last two days, haven't I?" with a nervous laugh, she turned back to Kyleigh who just gave her a look that plainly meant, "I told you so!"

They walked into Darbus' room and sat down, but this time Ryan sat next to Claire.

When the bell rang, Darbus stood up and said, "This year we have decided to put on a music-al much earlier than normal. We will be having auditions for 'Grease' tomorrow during free period. I strongly encourage you all to attend the auditions."

Gabriella looked at Troy who suspiciously avoided her gaze and she made a disgruntled noise.

Sharpay smiled at Ryan, but he didn't return the smile, and instead became extremely engrossed in his pen.

The bell rang once again and Ryan walked with Claire to their English class.

He looked at her for a moment and said, "Claire, do you wanna audition with me for 'Grease?'"

Claire looked at him in surprise. "You've never even heard me sing, and don't you always act with Sharpay?"

"Well, yeah, but life needs some variety, and Troy told me that you sang extremely well."

"Well, the only people who have ever heard me sing are Troy, Kyleigh and Cody…" but she turned away composing herself at the sound of his name, a name she hadn't said since the funeral.

Ryan saw her freak out, and wanted to help her, but didn't want to feel like he was prying, so he did nothing.

She turned to him and said, "Do you want to get together to work on one of the songs?"

"Wait, is that yes?"

"… Yeah, that was a yes."

"YES!" he yelled, "…I mean, great! So my house after school?"

"Sure, but what about Sharpay?"

"She'll have to deal."

"Okay." Claire said with more confidence then she actually had. Although she was happy, she couldn't help but think that something was going to go wrong.

Nothing went wrong… until lunch, that is.

As Claire sat down with her tray, Ryan and Sharpay came over, Sharpay looking enraged. She took no notice of Claire or the others at the table, and began yelling at Ryan.

"How could you do this to me? What do you mean your not auditioning with me? You can't get any part on your own! I'm the star! I'm the reason we got all those leads, not you!!!"

Ryan looked at her, now he was getting angry. "Will you shut up? Just because you think you're a great singer doesn't mean I'm going to let you walk all over me! And besides, I'm not doing it alone, I'm doing it with Claire." He motioned towards Claire, who cringed, wishing she could disappear.

Sharpay seemed to just then notice that there were other people at the table. She saw that Claire seemed close to tears, but didn't really think about it.

She turned back to Ryan and said, "Fine, you sing with her." She stood up angrily, " But she'll turn out to be a bitch who breaks your heart, just like all the others!"

Ryan jumped up and yelled, "Don't you talk about her like that! She's a better person than you'll ever be!"

At this point, Claire was sobbing and as Sharpay opened her mouth to retort, Claire jumped up and ran out of the cafeteria.

Ryan shot a glare at Sharpay and quickly chased after Claire, and found her kneeling with her forehead pressed up against a locker, tears streaming down her face.

He walked towards her, knelt down, and gently put his arm around her.

She looked up at him and smiled weakly. "I'm so sorry," she mumbled, "it just kills me to see twins fighting."

Ryan looked at her, perplexed. "I don't get it, what's wrong with twins fighting?"

Claire looked around and stood up. She led Ryan down the hall to a janitor closet and pulled him in. She sat down on an overturned bucket and he did the same.

He looked at her encouragingly and she prepared herself to tell the story for the first time to someone other than Kyleigh.

"Alright, I'm a twin, or at least, I was a twin."

She sniffed and plunged into the story. "About four months ago, I got in a big fight with my twin brother, Cody. I don't even remember how it started now, but we got into a screaming match. I ended up running out of his room crying. That night, our parents were taking us to a party for one of their friends. We still hadn't made up and were staring out of opposite windows in the car. Then, an SUV came speeding down the road in the wrong lane, straight towards us. My dad couldn't do anything to avoid it and we crashed. I remember lying next to Cody and him making sure I was all right, and I was sobbing out my apologies, he went to hug me and he was saying it was okay, and everything was going to be alright, that an ambulance was coming, but he collapsed on top of me. I didn't have enough energy to get him off of me, and I felt his heart stop, right on top of mine. Then I lost consciousness. I woke up and my whole family was gone. I was at a hospital and I was an orphan. In ten seconds my life had been ruined by a drunk driver. I lived with Kyleigh and when her family decided to move, I made the choice to come with them. I will never forgive myself for fighting with Cody. He was my twin, my older brother, my protector, and the last real conversation I had with him entailed calling him an asshole."

She took a deep shuddering breath and looked at Ryan. Suddenly, she broke down into hysterics and threw herself into his arms.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 

To put it simply, Ryan was shocked. As Claire sobbed into his shirt, he practically carried her over to a spot on the wall so they could sit comfortably.

He sat down, backed against the wall, and Claire curled up in his lap, shaking with sobs. He stroked her hair and muttered soothingly to her.

After a few minutes, she looked up at him and tried to smile. "I'm so sorry." She choked out as she glanced at the huge wet spots covering his shirt. He looked down at them too and laughed.

"It's not a big deal. I've got an extra shirt in my locker somewhere." Claire laughed and smiled, looking much more relaxed.

They sat in peaceful silence for a few minutes, Ryan's arms wrapped around Claire protectively, as though he could keep out all the sorrow and fear.

A few minutes later Claire glanced at her cell phone and gasped. "It's two minutes till our next class!"

She jumped up and opened the closet door. She and Ryan ran to their lockers and pulled their backpacks out.

Ryan grabbed a T-shirt out of his locker and quickly changed out of his wet one and in to the dry one.

Claire glanced at him in all his shirtless glory and a chill ran down her spine. "_STOP IT!"_ she thought but before she could reprimand herself anymore Ryan's shirt was back on and the bell was ringing for the end of lunch.

Ryan threw his wet shirt back in his locker just as large groups of kids came stampeding through the halls. Claire pulled out a mirror and wiped away her smeared makeup.

Sharpay and Kyleigh both walked over and Sharpay began talking to Ryan. "I'm so sorry! I just overreacted, I didn't mean to get so crazy!"

Ryan looked at her and said, "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have yelled at you either." Ryan stepped forward and enveloped his sister in a hug.

Sharpay then turned to Claire. "and I'm sorry if my comment was what set you off…"

"Oh it wasn't" Claire replied quickly. "Ryan can tell you all about it later if you really want to know, but I don't want to talk about it anymore just now."

"Okay…" Sharpay said, looking confused.

Kyleigh came over to Claire and looked at her questioningly and Claire whispered, "I told him everything." Kyleigh raised her eyebrows and smiled. They all left for their next class.

Troy was just plain sick and tired of Gabriella. He had loved his summer, even though he hadn't seen Gabriella at all.

Sure, they had kept in touch, but he had forgotten just how clingy and annoying she could be.

He was just contemplating whether or not to break off their relationship when a note with a lipstick mark on it landed in his open history book.

He glanced over at Gabriella, who was reapplying her lipstick. She smiled at him and winked. Troy glanced back and the note and unfolded it. As he read, a lump grew in his throat.

Hey Troy!

Haven't seen you much today. So, we should try out for the play again, don't you think? I think I'd be a perfect Sandy! You'll be Danny with me obviously. Reply!

Love,

Gabbi

Troy picked up his pen, worried about what he should say and what reaction she would have.

Luckily the bell rang and he didn't have time to reply. He tried to get out quickly enough so that Gabriella wouldn't be able to find him, but she grabbed his backpack and pulled him into an empty classroom.

"Troy!" she said excitedly and she leaned in to kiss him.

"Gabriella…" he said exasperatedly as he moved out of the path of her lips.

"What's wrong Troy? I've missed you!" she said with a playful pout. She pulled herself into his arms.

"Gabriella, listen to me!" he said pushing her away gently. "I don't think we should see each other anymore."

"You're kidding." She said with a smirk.

"No, Gabriella, I'm sorry but I'm serious."

"I can't believe you would dump me! ME! I got us into the musical last year, now all you'll have is your basketball. You won't be able to get into the musical without me!"

She ran out leaving Troy dazed buy happye that he was rid of her.

"_Wait a minute,"_ he thought. _"She dissed me! Well I'll show her! Let's see… ha! I'll audition for Kenickie! As long as she's not Rizzo it'll all be fine…"_


End file.
